Daily Tarot Spread

At the prompting of some Universal inspiration a few years ago, I devised my Daily Tarot Reading Spread. It developed a card at a time and remained at five cards for a while before I added the sixth card, which was designed to leave me with something to think about in connection with the reading.

I wanted to share it with you here as it’s a useful spread, allowing you to skim the cards for a quick outlook, or going deeper by analysing the cards more fully.
It’s a linear spread, that is, it’s laid out into a straight line, meaning you can read the cards sequentially. It also allows you to read them using elemental dignities and card pairing too.

Let’s have a look at the positions:

Myself – this is how I am on this day, how I’m feeling, my mindset, my energy or not.

Theme – this is the theme for the day, be it good or bad, I will get an idea here.

Challenges – this can represent people or situations, but either way it’s a warning.

Responses – this is my likely response to the challenge suggested before.

Advice – this is advice directly from the Universal Source relating to the day.

Thought – and a final Thought for the Day, which will either confirm the reading, or ask me to expand my thinking.

If your Response is negative or unproductive, the Advice card will show you the correct response, or how to adjust your situation with an action or different way to see any issues raised. You can change Response to say “this is my suggested response”, if you prefer to prepare before acting.

You can change around the position and rename them to suit yourself – the beauty of this spread is it’s flexibility, so have a play and see what you might do differently. Don’t forget to let me know what worked for you – use the comments section to share your experiences.

Using the Daily Tarot Spread for the Week Ahead

This is such a great tarot spread that it works equally well for the week ahead. Simply replace the ‘day’ for the ‘week’ in the decriptions and you’re done! You can also use 2-3 cards per position if you’re in the mood to flex your tarot muscles, though one card in each gives lots of information particularly if you bring in other techniques to help you.

To see how amazing the Daily Tarot Spread works for the week ahead, I’ve shared my reading from this morning. This is for the coming week.

I’ve been in a creative mood of late and while I have lots of ideas, I need to remain focused and not lose sight of my goals or purpose, and while I’ve been growing my business, I need to keep a nice balance between work and play.

So despite a tough week of work ahead, it’s still pretty much down to me in how much effort I put in, making the right choices and just getting on with the task at hand despite how much work there really is!

A reading without any air cards can signify that I’m not considering all of my choices well, or thinking about things at all or clearly. However, it can also signify that I have thought things through enough and now I’m implementing those plans – this reading is nothing if not action packed.

If we add all numerical value of the cards in this reading, they total 40 and reduce to 4 which we can equate to the Emperor – the need to take control and see the job done, no pussyfooting around – time to crack my own whip.

Pairing the cards

You can apply this wonderful technique at the end of a reading for extra insight or more clarity. Simply take the outside cards and read them in combination, that is, read 1 and 6 together. Then pair 2 and 5, and finally, 3 and 4.

Pairing my cards looked like this:

Empress and 3 of Coins

Wow, both earth cards, both number 3’s, both working and productive cards. Creativity productivity, seeing results for your efforts.

7 of Cups and the Devil

Delusions of grandeur, delectable distractions that can interfere with all the productivity above.

10 of Wands and 2 of Cups

Sharing the load with business partners, friends and lovers. Calling in the cavalry when things get heavy.

So you can see just by pairing the cards I gained some extra information and know to be extra careful with distractions – they won’t get my work done. Giving in to my weaker side will be detrimental to my productivity this week and could be the cause of the burden I feel with the 10 of Wands. A more organised 3 of Coins would ensure a smoother operation next week and as the card in the Thoughts position, it has given me the tools I need to be more productive this week and get all my work done.

Now you can see why this is one of my favourite spreads, give it a try and let me know how you get on with it. Use it as the Daily Tarot Spread, for the week ahead or even ask a specific question – it’s really accurate at getting to the bones of an issue.

Share your experiences in the comments and any other questions you may have for me – I can’t wait to hear how you got on!

Cheers Catherine,
I had a great go with your daily spread last night. I used it as my weekly spread and came up with two of the same cards you did, the Ten of Imps for my Theme card and Three of Pumpkins for my Response card from the Halloween Tarot. I am starting my Tarot business so these are spot on. I had three Court cards that came up in my reading -Myself (Queen of Ghosts), and two Kings, Advice(King of Imps) and Thought(King of Bats). Interesting enough the King of Bats was my thought card! I like linear spreads and enjoyed the card pairing with this six card spread . I was interested in the card count and was wondering what value you would give to Queens/Kings or just Courts in general? I plan to work with this spread during the week and see how it all sorts out. Thank you for this wonderful spread.
Blessings and Happy Halloween,
Maggie

Hi Maggie – thank you for such kind words! I’m really pleased you had a great time with the Daily Tarot Spread.

You can decide to not count the Court Cards, or can you can continue with the counting sequence from 10 and assign the following:

Pages/Princesses – 11
Knights/Princes – 12
Queens – 13
Kings – 14

Aces would count 1, unless you also wanted to omit them also. The only real reason for omitting any of them at all would be that they don’t actually have a numerical value assigned to them. It’s a personal choice.

Hi Donna – you may of course use the Daily Tarot Spread to your heart’s content! I’m so glad you had such a great time with it – and wow, getting close to the same cards as I did. Love your King of Swords though, he’s in control of himself, so no matter what goes on around you, you’ll be keeping your head and making the right decisions. Yay!

Hi Maggie – Card Counting is a fab technique, glad you enjoyed it. I’d like to take the credit for creating it, but alas, it wasn’t me. My first experience with Card Counting was through the Golden Dawn’s Opening of the Key Spread, but I’ve since read that Eittella presented the technique before them. It seems to be an old technique that was lost for some years. I’m glad it’s making a comeback.

Thanks, Catherine…I have been almost absent on Facebook, too. I felt like it was sucking up so much of my time. I miss the interactions but I feel much more accomplished at the end of the day when I have not been surfing so much.

Yes, that helps so much. I am just beginning in my understanding of the tarot. Reversed cards seem to really throw me and so your advice has helped me to relax.
I am now wondering if you read with reversals and would you mind explaining why some do and some don’t?
Thank you!

I don’t often read with reversals, I find card combinations sufficient to give additional and expanded, not to mention, blended, definitions. I learnt to read tarot using reversals but when I then learned all about elemental dignities, I used them less and less. It’s a personal choice and will change from reader to reader. Some believe that the tarot can tell the full story for the client within the 78 cards already, and others believe the reversals expand their tarot vocabulary.

Having travelled this road for a while now, I would say to all new readers that they don’t have to learn reversals in the beginning, and that when they have a good grasp on the meanings of the cards, then they can look at reversals if they’re still interested. There’s no rush and it’s not compulsory.

Yes, it does! I feel that my understanding of the tarot is going to take my lifetime (in a good way). I suppose that’s true for anything that one wishes to master. Thanks for responding.
You are the first person that I have ever spoken to about this. I don’t have anyone to ask and I love your website so thank you again for your time!

When I first laid out my daily spread I thought this is totally wrong! Then I paired them… ouch, the truth hurts. It hit the nail right on the head: the !0 of Pentacles with the 5 of Swords, Page of Cups with the 8 of Swords, and the Star with the 5 of Swords. I added the numbers and pulled The Priestess and Judgement, just for fun, and it was all of the violent ups and downs of the last 7 days in 8 cards.
Thank you for another amazing post, and a reality check!!